Cat C

We live in a world where everyone has endless access to a camera and pictures are constantly being taken. But does that mean we appreciate pictures anymore? Are we doing pictures right?

Of course, pictures remain as important as ever. But our captured memories are only as valuable as the way we choose to preserve them. Our cherished moments – that we thought would last generations in digital form – could disappear in the blink of an eye with one quick lightning strike or misplaced magnet.

Although I am definitely a product of the digital age, even I recognize that it’s more than just coincidence that all of those pictures I see regularly are printed pictures.

Printed pictures are incredibly important as they not only allow us to capture a certain moment in time, but also preserve it for generations to come and so are able to relive the wonderful memory or experience again and again. Even more, printed pictures are shared easily with others, and authenticate our important past. 

Pictures are often associated with the tangible object,
while an image is perceived as a file in a digital format. The difference being tangible versus digital.

While the digital form is incredibly convenient, easily shared through social media, it lacks staying power. If you are anything like me, you have 5000 digital photos of your kids, cat or whatever is important to you. These awesome, small little digital files can easily be shared to your friends, family and loved ones. But then what? They hang around in your phone or computer. if you’re really tech savvy you back them up onto another drive, sort them into files and then you forget about them. And then you go out and take more images. And the cycle continues. 

Also, digital files can be compromised at any given time and can be lost forever in a blink of an eye.

Pictures on the other hand, whether they are in a photo album, book form or hanging on your wall, you see frequently. You can touch it, feel, it, see it. It is a constant reminder, it is tangible, real and ever present. These are the photographs you connect with more frequently and readily. 

High-quality printed products are actually longer lasting compared to digital. Just ask yourself; how long before your hard drive, USB, or file sharing site becomes obsolete, closes down, or starts charging you for its service? On the other hand, I still have photos of my ancestors who crossed the Atlantic to Canada; photos taken in the 19^th century!

The unfortunate reality of life is that it passes us by way too quickly. Worse yet, we often don’t realize it before it’s too late. One day your bringing your precious little one home from the hospital and the next thing they are out the door for college.

Pictures are a way to capture – by freezing in time – these moments we can’t hold on to but would like to re-live again and again. Moments such as a baby’s first steps, childhood, all the way through college graduation, weddings, anniversaries, landmark birthdays, homecomings etc. the list goes on.

The main reason we go through the trouble of capturing and preserving our memories as photos is to be able to share them later. 

A picture cannot exist; cannot affect, if never taken. So remember; take your camera with you.

Photographs, especially tangible prints, authenticate our world. Pictures are the present’s eyes in the past; think “seeing is believing”.  Most of us have family, friends, moments, and/or experiences from the past we would love to pass on to our children or remember in later life. Pictures are the perfect medium for this experience. 

Sharing a story about a relative is wonderful but seeing that picture of them makes the engagement much more profound. For example, I was born after my grandfather had past, but I was always told wonderful stories of him. Yet, what I remember above any story is pictures of him. The photos made the stories and the man real for me. A man, whom I had never met, I finally met, through a photograph. 

Photos can teach us. 

Photos can teach us about the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with. It can also teach us about those people who are too far away for us to see; think National Geographic Magazine. I waited patiently every month for that magazine to arrive in the mail and there was always a fight about who got to read it first. Why? Because it opened up a whole world I would never have seen otherwise. The stories were wonderful, but it was the photographs that grabbed my attention and educated me first.

Our world has become accessible, for all, through photography. Without it we would not understand the devastation in Australia from fire or the beauty of the jungles in Borneo. Photography brings the world to us.

Photography is a complexed emotional language.

Photography, when at its best, is a powerful language which speaks to our emotions. If you have ever seen Nick Ut’s photograph of a crying Vietnamese girl whose clothes have been burnt away by napalm you will understand the power photography has to evoke our emotions. It allows us to tell our story and show others our frame of reference of the world around us. Whether it is good or bad.

Our images can express joy and sorrow, wonder, sympathy and even anger. Every human emotion can find a place in photography. 

Our History & Legacy

Photographs serve as a chronicle of our lives; where we’ve been, what we’ve done, who we were. They tell the story that we don’t always speak.
​
Photographs matter because they freeze moments of our lives which pass unremarkably and which seem to have little importance to us at the time. The significance, however, may be for others who search to know the person we once were or the places we once knew. They can be small pieces of a jigsaw that complete the larger picture. Photos are the legacy we leave behind for our children; offering a way to share our stories with generations to come.